Wednesday, August 19, 2009

The miracles of modern science have made another breakthrough. It turns out that people in the Bolivian Amazon who are active all day, fishing, walking around, and whatever else you need to do to live in the Amazon do not get heart disease and other ailments associated with being a fat "civilized" person.

3 comments:

No need for the Amazonians to do it, the Germans already have. They were baffled, after World War II, why so many of their own had begun dropping like flies from circulatory disorders. The strange new syndrome had an informal name, however: "die amerikanische Managerkrankheit" (do I need to translate that?) It was soon linked to the unhealthy, overfed, sedentary lifestyle that had taken hold among the middle class--too much booze, too much red meat, smoking, and not enough exercise.

Of course, these Amazonians could probably have told you us those were problems already. Whether we've learned to listen is another matter.